Dadaism

Dadaism (1916-1920) was an art (or anti-art) movement that began
in Switzerland with a small group of young artists and poets
escaping the war in Western Europe. The group was disillusioned
with the war and with moral and societal conventions (in the form of
the bourgeoisie), as well as with the strictures
governing art and literature at the time.

They created a style that reflected their spirit: anarchic and
nihilistic. Seemingly random words were strung together to form
verses; geometric shapes were used to depict everyday objects.
Conventional structures were taken apart and reassembled in what
appeared to be nonsensical forms. Tristan Tzara's
Dada Manifesto
states: "By giving art the impetus of supreme simplicity –
novelty – we are being human and true in relation to innocent
pleasures; impulsive and vibrant in order to crucify boredom."

The concept that Dadaism was all-encompassing, found everywhere
and nowhere, is key to understanding the movement. Its practitioners
were not bound by previously existing rules, but could create forms
previously unseen in art and literature.
Francis
Picabia, one of the more noted Dadaist painters, described it
this way: "Dada speaks with you, it is everything, it envelops
everything, it belongs to every religion, can be neither victory or
defeat, it lives in space and not in time."